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Well, they are good if people actually click on your links. I put $25 in to try it out 3 months ago and I still haven't used it all up. I have 197 search terms right now and no one searches for a lot of things apparently. So... I guess it's worth it if you don't mind long term un noticeable traffic growth. It is a great service and a good idea, but only if you're willing to pay the $3 per click to get the good terms.

I'll give you my "magic formula" (aka wild guess that seems to work) on using GoTo:

1. Download the spreadsheet and bid on lots of terms.

2. When I mean lots, I mean lots. Every possible combination you can imagine. Then add some more.

3. Write a good description. The title should make people want to read your description, the description should make them want to click to your site.

Even getting into the top 50 on very popular search terms will give you traffic, but for low-pop terms, you need to be in the top 3-5 at least.

Think of GoTo as *targeted* traffic - the generic terms are very expensive to bid on, the more specific and targeted you get, the better-qualified the visitors are and the lower the cost. This is unusual for the web - everywhere but GoTo, targeted traffic costs more.

I started in April with the usual $30 ($25 + $5 free for signing up through an affiliate's link) and I've not used it up yet, but that's because I'm only paying a penny a click, which means I'll burn through only $3-$5 a month at most.

Originally posted by necrominator Awesome, thats what im thinking of usign, i have another question, on big terms, can you still bid 1 cent and be like 20th

Depends on which terms, of course.

You can't get away with a 1-cent bid on "big" terms, usually. Just do a search on those terms at http://www.goto.com, and you'll see the amount of the bids. A 1-cent bid for "Pokemon" will get you buried too deep to be found, but a 3-cent bid would put you on the second page of results. 7 cents would put you on the first page. For "small business" you can get onto the second page with a 5-cent bid.

Only *very* popular terms will generate any traffic from a second page listing.

You have to decide what traffic is worth to you. If you can make enough money from a visitor to bid more on popular terms, then do it. I wouldn't throw more than 10-20% of the visit's value into a pay-per-click campaign, though. I focus less on the amount of traffic, and more on the quality of the traffic. 1000 clicks that generate no sales isn't even worth a penny.

I often found its better to first decide how much you get total income from 1000 visitors, since i run a advertiser supported sites, and then you can decide what you can spend on advertising, if you can find advertising for less than you make per 1000 visitors, go for it, because nomatter how much traffic you get you will always make money.

I have a similar forumular for calculating how much to bid on terms. I first calculate 3 variables...

Accuracy of term ... 0-1

Probability of sale per visit ... 0-1

Cost of sale

Example if I wish to sell a subscription to my fdantasy football leagu emanager, $60 and I am bidding on the word fantasy football this will yeild a Accuracy of 0.10 beacuse about 1 out of every 10 fantasy football searches have the power to decide what service to use. The pobaility the sale will happen, who the heck knows! But I try, say I figure it to be 0.008. So 0.1 * 0.008 * 60.00 I would bid $0.05 for ranking. If the term was fantasy football league mananger then it would be 1.0 * 0.008 * 60.00, so I would offer as much as $0.50 to get a ranking. This is just what I do, it is just a way for me to feel like I am not just guess, but in the end, aren;t I anyway!

I lOVE goto.com!! I just put in my bids 5 weeks ago, and already I'm getting most of my daily traffic through them - even more than my Yahoo! listing. (Which kind of surprises me, but who cares - targeted traffic is targeted traffic!)

I agree with the earlier advice, bid on TONS of less popular terms for a penny or two per pop. It all adds up (in terms of traffic!)

Some of my terms got rejected, and I wrote them a nice note suggesting WHY I should have them, and they changed the decision and added the terms the next day...

Bidding starts at only $0.001 there, traffic is slow but steady every day (I have over 300 listings).

If you join now, they're offering 500% on top of your starting deposit (min: $5) - IOW I put in $20 to start and my balance started at $120 (20 + 5*20 = 120).

You won't get far without over 100 listings, better with 250+. But, with bidding starting at $0.001 a $0.003 to $0.005 bid is enough to get in top 10 on many important search terms (as anywhere else, the major general terms still cost a bit).

I use BrainFox.. if you're in for quick traffic don't bother, it comes slowly here.. should be a few months before my $120 burns out (that's 120,000 visits $0.001).

I spend over $100 per month, at an average of approx $0.02 per visitor. This includes in some very competitive categories.

I think this is great value. #1 tip - Bid low on a lot of terms

It is simply not true you need to bid $3 per click or whatever. All you need to do is work the system and bid on a lot of terms.

Goto has traffic and has lots to send if you work it hard. 200 million searches per month. Most/All of the established competitors have less than 10% of GoTo's traffic. Most/all of the less established competitors have < 1% of Goto's traffic.

Personally I wouldn't bother with any of GoTo's competitors until you're spending at least $25-$50 per month on GoTo.